As 2014 comes to a close, LDA would like to wish its members, partners and other industry professionals a safe and happy holiday season. As we reflect on the past year for the industry, we would like to provide the readers of The LD Source, a look at the most accessed articles from the year. Our regular publication will resume Thursday, Jan. 8.

U.S. Department of Education releases results of new special education evaluation processEducation Week From June 26:
Fewer states are meeting requirements for serving students with disabilities now that the U.S. Department of Education is focusing less on compliance with voluminous rules and more on how well those students are being educated, the department said recently. The move toward what the department's office of special education is calling "results-driven accountability" began last year and has already had an effect.

Report: Landmark ADHD study backed drugs over therapy at a costHealthDay News via U.S. News & World Report From Jan. 9:
Many children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder may have missed out on valuable counseling because of a widely touted study that concluded stimulants such as Ritalin or Adderall were more effective for treating the disorder than medication plus behavioral therapies, experts say. That 20-year-old study, funded with $11 million from the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health, concluded that the medications outperformed a combination of stimulants plus skills-training therapy or therapy alone as a long-term treatment.

What musicians can tell us about dyslexia and the brainWired From Feb. 13:
Dyslexia is a frustrating disorder that gives otherwise smart people trouble with reading. Nobody knows exactly what causes it, but one popular hypothesis is that the root of the problem is a deficit in the brain’s ability to process sounds, especially during childhood. Kids who have a hard time parsing all those talky sounds that grownups make also struggle to learn the connections between speech sounds and words on a page. And that's what causes the reading difficulties, or so the thinking goes.

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5 ways dyslexia can affect a child's social lifeThe National Center for Learning Disabilities From May 15:
Dyslexia makes reading and other language-based tasks difficult, but it can also affect your child's social skills. Here are five common social challenges your child with dyslexia may face — and ways you can help.

Understanding the causes of dyslexia for effective interventionEdutopia From Oct. 30:
For most of the 40-plus years the term "dyslexia" has been in existence — and although the diagnosis has long been considered a "learning disability" — it has been based on comparisons with average readers. Simply put, a child could be diagnosed with dyslexia if he or she shows an IQ in the "normal" range but falls at or below the 10th percentile on standardized reading tests. This cut-off has been arbitrary, often varying from district to district and based on Response to Intervention criteria. As a result, a child who falls at the 12th percentile might be considered a poor reader while a child at the 10th percentile would be diagnosed with dyslexia.

Why recess is non-negotiable for ADHD kidsADDitude From Sept. 25:
As if we needed more proof that taking away recess is a counterproductive punishment, a new study indicates that exercising every day can actually help ADHD children focus better in class. The study, recently published in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, selected 202 children between the ages of 4 and 9 — about half of whom were "at risk" for ADHD. The students were randomly assigned to either 31 minutes of vigorous physical activity before school or 31 minutes of a sedentary classroom activity, like completing an art project. The study lasted for 12 weeks.

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Schools try shuffling schedules for successSt. Louis Post-Dispatch From Nov. 20:
For years, schools have grappled with how to help pupils who are struggling the most catch up to their classmates. In many cases, holding them back to repeat a grade hasn't worked. Neither has social promotion — allowing children to move to the next grade with their classmates, where they may fall further behind. So what would it take to get a pupil the needed help without the stigma of repeating a grade? Two schools in the Pattonville School District are shaking up schedules and class structures in an effort to find out.

Understanding 'attention deficit' in dyslexics could help improve readingMedical Xpress From July 10:
A new study from researchers in our Department of Psychology has revealed that understanding attention deficits in adults with dyslexia may help develop new techniques for reading and writing. Dyslexia is well known as a condition that impacts on visual language processing, but recently a number of studies have discovered that it is accompanied by deficits in attention and perception. As part of the study, just published online via the journal Neurocase, researchers monitored how adults with and without dyslexia responded to an "interference test." Their results revealed large differences in terms of attention deficits for adults with dyslexia.

Study: Language problems common for kids with ADHDHealthDay News via WebMD From April 24:
Children who have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder are nearly three times more likely to have language problems than kids without ADHD, according to new research. And those language difficulties can have far-reaching academic consequences, the study found. The study, published online April 21 in Pediatrics, looked at 6- to 8-year-olds with and without ADHD in Australia. "We found that 40 percent of children in the ADHD group had language problems, compared to 17 percent of children in the 'control' group," said Emma Sciberras, a clinical psychologist and post-doctoral research fellow at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Victoria, Australia. "Rates of language problems were similar in boys and girls with ADHD," she added.

Is e-reading to your toddler story time, or simply screen time?The New York Times From Oct. 16:
Clifford the Big Red Dog looks fabulous on an iPad. He sounds good, too — tap the screen and hear him pant as a blue truck roars into the frame. "Go, truck, go!" cheers the narrator. But does this count as story time? Or is it just screen time for babies? It is a question that parents, pediatricians and researchers are struggling to answer as children's books, just like all the other ones, migrate to digital media.

Looking to share your expertise?
In an effort to enhance the overall content of THE LD SOURCE, we'd like to include peer-written articles in future editions. As a member of LDA and/or reader of THE LD SOURCE, your knowledge of learning disabilities and related issues lends itself to unprecedented expertise. And we're hoping you'll share this expertise with your peers through well-written commentary. Because of the digital format, there's no word or graphical limit. Our group of talented editors can help with final edits. If you're interested in participating, please contact Ronnie Richard to discuss logistics.

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